The seventh movie, with a working title of "Episode 7," is set for release in 2015. Episodes 8 and 9 will follow. The trilogy will continue the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia beyond "Return of the Jedi," the third film released and the sixth in the saga. After that, Disney plans a new "Star Wars" movie every two or three years. Lucas will serve as creative consultant in the new movies.

Hikohadon wrote:The natural question is who will be playing Han, Luke, and Leia? No way it's broken down Harrison Ford or hefty Carrie Fisher.

I think we'll be looking at the adventures of Han and Leia's offspring, probably played by someone we've never heard of. Just hope we don't have any Disney fairies flying around. Jar Jar was bad enough.

You obviously missed ep 1-3 and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull if you think that Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises' declines are less precipitous than the NFL's.

Had they managed to get this while removing Lucas' influence for future projects then I would have said Disney won. However he still gets creative license in future projects so unless he dies before these get produced it's unlikely that the storylines are worth people spending money on. Special effects don't exactly guarantee profits either. Right Disney's John Carter?

rk wrote:You obviously missed ep 1-3 and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull if you think that Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises' declines are less precipitous than the NFL's.

You're forgetting your audience - plenty of 8 year olds out there think Ep 1-3 were the shiznet. I know several.

The NFL may get as stupid as Jar-Jar as it trends towards a two-hand touch league played solely indoors, but there won't be as many 8 year olds demanding to watch it as the adults say "Fuck this noise".

Despite the epic fail of Ep 1-3, you know 10 million dipshits will be camping in line to get Ep 7 tickets. But give the Browns another 3 years of 4-12 and they won't have enough fan attendance to fill Wolstein.

Agree on Lucas, though. I walked past him once in a dark parking lot in San Diego, immediately chastised myself for not killing him when I had the chance.

As an avid and frankly embarrassing star wars fan, I have to say, with the benefit of hindsight, the prequels, were mostly ok. The second was an abortion, true, and Jar Jar was just a mistake. But III was legitimately good and I seems to be better than I remember it at the time.

II was really bad though.

In any case, we'll know soon enough whether or not this will be good. If they do the Thrawn trilogy then holy Gods, these movies will be awesome. Anything else and Disney will have failed their first major test.

Indy IV was pretty bad too, but that was more Spielberg than Lucas, IIRC.

Disney is the clear winner here, unless Haslem has us winning the SB before the new movies are out.

And before anyone accuses me of being 12, my wife and I met because of Star Wars, more than a decade ago.

bac5665 wrote:As an avid and frankly embarrassing star wars fan, I have to say, with the benefit of hindsight, the prequels, were mostly ok. The second was an abortion, true, and Jar Jar was just a mistake. But III was legitimately good and I seems to be better than I remember it at the time.

II was really bad though.

In any case, we'll know soon enough whether or not this will be good. If they do the Thrawn trilogy then holy Gods, these movies will be awesome. Anything else and Disney will have failed their first major test.

Indy IV was pretty bad too, but that was more Spielberg than Lucas, IIRC.

Disney is the clear winner here, unless Haslem has us winning the SB before the new movies are out.

And before anyone accuses me of being 12, my wife and I met because of Star Wars, more than a decade ago.

I'm thinking Disney will completely ignore any and all Expanded Universe (As it is known) with their sequels. I know the article said Episodes 7-9 are from a Lucas outline, but if he no longer is directing and the script is put into a competent director's hands (Like a certain movie called Empire Strikes Back) than we should be in for some GOOD movies.

Ignoring the EU is (mostly) a good thing, but that being said, there are things to cherry pick out of the Zahn novels that definitely are worth keeping. I gave up trying to read most of the other EU novels when they started blowing up the Falcon, killing Chewbacca and generally doing batshit crazy things so they could have an "Event" novel.

Indy IV: That was Lucas. In fact, Spielberg threw Lucas under the bus in an interview about it earlier this year. I'd give you a link but I no longer remember where I read it.

I agree that they will ignore the EU, but I think that the Thrawn trilogy is, by a wide margin, the best place to start with sequels and the best source material from the EU. The Jedi Academy trilogy being a close second.

And I am apparently the only person who liked the NJO books. Go figure.

bac5665 wrote:I agree that they will ignore the EU, but I think that the Thrawn trilogy is, by a wide margin, the best place to start with sequels and the best source material from the EU. The Jedi Academy trilogy being a close second.

And I am apparently the only person who liked the NJO books. Go figure.

Hated the Jedi Academy, quickly realized the NJO books would not be my cup of tea.

The Thrawn trilogy is very good, and Zahn is one of the few authors who "gets it" when he's writing, which is why cherry-picking his stuff would be a good idea.

Biggest difference IMO is Haslem is working more toward a younger demographic in general, while he tries to grow his Browns empire. Disney, with this desire for more Star Wars, is placing a lot of focus on older generations, particularly generation X, and that's a good way to reach gen X's kids.

Criminals in this town used to believe in things...honor, respect."I heard your dog is sick, so bought you this shovel"

justmebd wrote:I dressed as Raistlin for Halloween back in the late 80's, but my avatar actually is the Archlich Vecna from the Greyhawk world. I've been meaning to change it, but I've just been too lazy.

How'd you get the hourglass eyes and what color robe did you pick?

Still a little surprised those never made it onto at least the little screen. Great storylines and characters and probably more appealing across sexes than most sci-fi.

Whatever they pick for the continuing storyline of Star Wars will almost certainly have to bow to the reality that you can't 'recast' Han Solo or most of the other human characters. Been a long time since I read Star Wars books but most if not all involved the primary ep 4-6 chars and any Hollywood directory is going to want a different storyline.

I recall Lucas being very explicit years ago that he had no intention of linking his movies to the world created in the books. And that he had already planned out his movies past Ep6. So hopes that they use the books are likely going to be fleeting. I always thought that the Rogue Squadron series would have translated well to the theater. Wedge was one of the better characters in the books and Star Wars always did better focusing on small parts of the bigger universe.

justmebd wrote:I dressed as Raistlin for Halloween back in the late 80's, but my avatar actually is the Archlich Vecna from the Greyhawk world. I've been meaning to change it, but I've just been too lazy.

How'd you get the hourglass eyes and what color robe did you pick?

Still a little surprised those never made it onto at least the little screen. Great storylines and characters and probably more appealing across sexes than most sci-fi.

Gotta go Black. He was always more badass when he wasn't sitting on the fence/spitting up blood.

I always thought the first series at least was custom made for the screen. Lots of action.

After that, I only read the twins time-travelling series, which I found meh and stopped there.

justmebd wrote:I dressed as Raistlin for Halloween back in the late 80's, but my avatar actually is the Archlich Vecna from the Greyhawk world. I've been meaning to change it, but I've just been too lazy.

How'd you get the hourglass eyes and what color robe did you pick?

Still a little surprised those never made it onto at least the little screen. Great storylines and characters and probably more appealing across sexes than most sci-fi.

Gotta go Black. He was always more badass when he wasn't sitting on the fence/spitting up blood.

I always thought the first series at least was custom made for the screen. Lots of action.

After that, I only read the twins time-travelling series, which I found meh and stopped there.

Well, in that case you've got to go Red, right? Put on the black and you're Fistandauntilus, who was pretty bad ass himself, but like you, I prefer the fence sitting blood spitter better.

Here's a little quiz, I call it Haslam or Disney. The answers to these questions will be either "Haslam" or "Disney"

1) Just bought a franchise that has been complete and utter shit for decades2) Just bought a franchise that has rabid fans who will eat buckets full of shit just because they love what it used to be3) Takes over from an incompetent owner that did everything he could to soil the good name of the franchise4) Fans of the franchise pin their hopes on this new owner to restore previous greatness as they lead themselves to believe the new owner has a history of competence5) Know they can make assloads of money regardless of whether they improve the franchise or not6) New assloads of money, over and above the assloads made even under incompetent management, are already on the trucks because the fans now have reinvigorated hope in the future of the franchise7) Fans are really looking forward to 2015, but will likely be disappointed then too.8) Thinks Pat Shurmur is an idiot and can barely control the urge to go on the field and strangle his clueless ass

Answers:1) Disney! The Browns have been shit for longer than decades.2) Haslam! With the aging NFL fan base, most of the fans remember the good ol' days. Star Wars actually has new fans who like the new garbage, Cleveland doesn't.3) Disney! A little esoteric here - Lerner left the doors of the house unlocked and abandoned it, Lucas soaked his in gas and burned it to the ground.4) Haslam! We think because Haslam owned .000001% of the Steelers that suddenly he'll build a perennial contender here. Star Wars fans know Disney produces horrible movies.5) Disney! Haslam knows he's got to improve the product to retain the attention and dollars of his fanbase, and to add new fans to the fold.6) Haslam! We all believe! 7) Disney! Browns fans won't think 2015 will be the year until the 4-12 campaign of 2014 is over.8) Disney! Remember, they own ESPN, and would love to hav the Browns on MNF, but they can't possibly put Shurmur on national TV.

justmebd wrote:I dressed as Raistlin for Halloween back in the late 80's, but my avatar actually is the Archlich Vecna from the Greyhawk world. I've been meaning to change it, but I've just been too lazy.

How'd you get the hourglass eyes and what color robe did you pick?

Still a little surprised those never made it onto at least the little screen. Great storylines and characters and probably more appealing across sexes than most sci-fi.

Gotta go Black. He was always more badass when he wasn't sitting on the fence/spitting up blood.

I always thought the first series at least was custom made for the screen. Lots of action.

After that, I only read the twins time-travelling series, which I found meh and stopped there.

Well, in that case you've got to go Red, right? Put on the black and you're Fistandauntilus, who was pretty bad ass himself, but like you, I prefer the fence sitting blood spitter better.

I went as Black-Robed Raistlin and painted my face and hands gold. I looked around for some kind of contact to apply for the Hourglass Eyes, but couldn't find one. Wore a white wig and found a staff that kind of resembled Raistlin's.

Hiko: Give the Time Traveling Twins story another chance. Book 3 of that series still ranks among my favorites of their work.

Casting: If this were 10 years ago, I'd say Daniel-Day Lewis as Sturm, but now I think he'd be dreamcast as Lord Soth.

At the moment, Hasbro has mothballed the Dragonlance Saga, but an Animated version of the first book was released on DVD about four years ago. It was okay.

The Emperor of the NFL is accelerating its decline with every bad decision. Disney's investment definitely has better long term prospects.

---"It was great training being there. They do it with character and intelligence. They run that organization the right way. They build through the draft. They're patient. It's just the right way to do it. It was a tremendous opportunity to be with them." Jimmy Haslam on why he'd model the Browns after the Steelers, 10/16/12